Zak Brown, Fernando Alonso, McLaren, IndyCar, Indianapolis Motor Speedway ,2019

Alonso’s McLaren Indy 500 return no last-minute deal – Brown

IndyCar

Posted on

| Written by

McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown says Fernando Alonso’s return to the team for the Indianapolis 500 was not a last-minute deal, though he had come close to driving for a rival.

Alonso was in discussions with Andretti about joining the team which co-ran his first Indianapolis 500 entry with McLaren in 2017. But the deal hit a late stumbling block, believed to be an objection from Andretti’s engine supplier Honda, who did not wish to be associated with the driver who repeatedly criticised their power units during their time together in Formula 1.

However Brown said he has been involved in long-running discussions with Alonso following their unsuccessful attempt to qualify at Indianapolis last year.

“It’s been in the works for quite some time,” said Brown in response to a question from RaceFans. “Fernando is quite a thoughtful individual when he takes a decision on what he wants to race.

“If I look at Dakar, which he obviously ended up doing, from the moment he decided he was interested in it, he wanted to test, he wanted to get to know the car, wanted to get to know the team and then ultimately made his decision.”

Fernando Alonso, McLaren, IndyCar, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, 2019
McLaren’s new Indy 500 effort will be “totally different” to 2019
McLaren is running two cars in the full IndyCar championship with Sam Schmidt’s Schmidt-Peterson team in a new operation known as McLaren SP. They will add a third car at Indianapolis for Alonso.

“This has been something that we’ve been speaking with Fernando about for a while,” said Brown. The appointment of Craig Hampson as race and R&D engineer, and McLaren SP’s performance in the pre-season test at the Circuit of the Americas “were things that as Fernando came to his final decision probably helped get him over the line,” Brown added.

“There was heavy speculation he might go elsewhere, but parallel conversations had been going on the entire time.”

Brown stressed the team’s operation this year was “totally different” to the one which failed to gain a place on the 33-car Indianapolis 500 grid last May.

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

“Sam has been on pole at Indianapolis. We know that Indianapolis has its highs and lows which it has for any team that’s competed there over the years.

[f1tv2020testa]”And I think Fernando was ultimately comfortable with the racing team as a whole: Craig, Gil [de Ferran, sporting director] is someone he’s very comfortable going racing for him and I think he takes some mentorship from Gil on how to race around Indy.

“And he’s excited for Chevrolet who are obviously extremely competitive around Indianapolis. I think when he sat back and looked at the package as a whole was comfortable that we’ll put forward a competitive entry for him.”

Alonso’s debut at Indianapolis three years ago generated widespread attention in the race, as did the surprising story of his failure to qualify last year. Brown expects more of the same this year.

“He creates a tremendous amount of attention wherever he goes. I remember when we did our first test in 2017 the live digital feed, if I’m not mistaken, got up to a couple of million followers.

“So I think Fernando will draw a lot of global attention to Indianapolis and IndyCar and to our partners and to the sport as a whole. So I think he’s a great addition, an ambassador for the sport. I know he very much enjoys the way he’s embraced in Indianapolis.”

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

IndyCar

Browse all IndyCar articles

Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

4 comments on “Alonso’s McLaren Indy 500 return no last-minute deal – Brown”

  1. Best news……

  2. Best outcome:

    Alonso P2.

    Hinch P1 and throws a ton of shade on his old team.

  3. “He creates a tremendous amount of attention wherever he goes. I remember when we did our first test in 2017 the live digital feed, if I’m not mistaken, got up to a couple of million followers.

    That stream of his rookie test was honestly one of the bets bits of motorsport broadcasting I have ever watched. It was one car going round and round in circles, but it was enthralling. This was mainly because the commentary team were excellent, they absolutely brought across just how hard the transition to Indy and ovals would be for Alonso and they explained all of the things he would have to work with and the challenges he had to face in the perfect level of detail – just technical enough to get the point across but without you having to get your logarithm charts out. After watching that I genuinely came away with a better understanding and appreciation of what the Indy 500 is all about and it has massively improved my enjoyment watching the race since.

Comments are closed.